EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios just won a battle for Love of Your Life, a spec by Nyad scribe Julia Cox, Deadline hears. Love of Your Life has been the talk of town this Halloween, and sources said the result is one of the biggest spec script deals in recent memory, landing in the $2 million range. Ryan Gosling is attached to produce with new producing partner Jessie Henderson at General Admission.
Numerous bids were proffered when CAA dropped the spec on the town, and one of the most intriguing bids came from Taylor Sheridan and Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, who were ready to pay $2 million with a greenlight and a theatrical release. David Ellison’s Skydance got in the game with them, assuming the bid so they could keep their money in their pockets. That film would have gone through Paramount. No specifics yet on how Amazon MGM sees how Love of Your Life will be released, but we’ll update when we know.
The script got several studios and streamers hot and bothered. Sydney Sweeney, who has fast become a go-to actress in her age range, has been discussed all day as a strong choice, though sources said she is not formally attached at all. This can be a vehicle for an actress like Dune: Part Two‘s Florence Pugh, Daisy Edgar-Jones or several others.
Cox’s big credit is Nyad, the drama about distance swimmer Diana Nyad realizing her seemingly impossible dream at 60 to swim 110 miles from Cuba to Florida. Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the Netflix film got Oscar nominations for Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. Cox was nominated for a 2024 WGA Award for adapting Nyad’s memoir Find a Way. She has also landed two scripts on the Black List, Do No Harm and The Takeaway.
The spec is another strong actress vehicle, drawing comparisons to Eat Pray Love. A young woman loses her young husband, and the movie is about her taking a journey so that she can regain her footing and find a reason to carry forward.